OECD Economic Surveys: Czech Republic 2018
The economy of the Czech Republic is thriving, growth is high, unemployment rate is low and fiscal stance is positive. Strong demand from the external sector and household consumption boosted by high increases in wages are driving growth. However, labour productivity remains low contributing to maintaining low wages. Deeper structural reforms and investment in skilling, education, R&D and innovation are needed to support further convergence towards OECD standards.
SPECIAL FEATURE: HEALTH SYSTEM
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Improving the Czech health care system
This chapter assesses the performance and emerging key challenges of the Czech health system, and provides recommendations to adapt the system to remain effective and financially sustainable in the context of an ageing society. The system is doing well in terms of health outcomes compared to other CEE economies that inherited similar health systems after the transition and has been converging to OECD averages. However, benchmarking the Czech health system to countries with comparable institutional setting points to potential for efficiency gains. The chapter also discusses how various disincentives in the system create inefficiencies on the supply and the demand side of health care.